She told me everything about the affair.  She told me how she had loved the man and how she honestly felt that he was the one.

It was well after midnight and I had picked her up close to a Midtown Hotel, which shall remain nameless because it is a hot spot for rendevous and secret amours.  It was such a dark night and we were on a highway en route to the outer edge of Queens.  The traffic was sparse and stars shone out in the night sky with incredible, awestruck majesty.

Her name was Linda, or so she said.  The affair had started when she was in her mid-twenties.  She was engaged at the time and soon to be married.  The man, just a simple livery driver, was in his mid-forties.  She said he was very handsome, not too heavy in the middle, articulate, and extremely well read.  Above all that, she said he was great in bed.  She made me laugh.

So she had decided he would be perfect for a last fling.

"Did you fall in love with him?"  I asked.

"I'm not sure.  I'm not sure if I know what love is... I think it was just infatuation."

"How long did it last?" 

At this point I felt confident that she would supply honest answers to my curiosity driven qsuestions.

"It lasted two months,"  she replied with a wry smile.

"Did he satysfy you?"

"Oh, God did he.  It was the hotest straight sex I ever had."

"Were you in love with your boyfriend at the time?"

"I don't think so.  He appeared to be such a nice guy.  My boyfriend that is,"  She flung her hair back and blushed.

"I mean he was perfect,"  she continued.  "He was handsome, young, well educated, and he came from money."

"Did he treat you well?"

"Extremely.  Like I said, he was perfect."

"Did you marry him?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I found out he'd been cheating on me.  When I asked him to end his affair he said he wouldn't.  He said he was in love and that he had to have her at any cost."

"So what did you say?"

"I't's not what I said, it's what I did."

"Okay...Then what did you do?"

"I packed my suitcase, quit my job, and flew home to Nebraska."

"And your fiance, how did it work out for him?"

"Not too well.  His paramour moved to L.A,. and he followed her out there.  She wasn't really that interested in him.  He actually had a nervous breakdown over her."

"Really?"

"Yes.  But screw the bastard.  He got what he deserved."

"Why do you feel that way?"

"Because he wasted my time.  And we were perfect for each other."

Then se laughed.  She took out her compact mirror and checked her face.  She was lovely.

"It's not a perect world,"  she said coldly.  "People have needs and nobody can fulfill all of our needs."

"And the middle-aged livery guy, what happened to him?"

"I dumped him.  He was too old for me."

"Oh,"  I said, knowing how heart broken he must have been, and also knowing just how lonely the life of a driver could be.

After a protracted silence I pulled up in front of her home.  It was platial with a Jaguar parked in the driveway.  All the lights were out except one.

She pulled out a hundred dollar bill, handed it to me and said, "Keep it."

I nodded my head and said thanks in the most appreciative tone of voice I could muster.

I drove away thinking that this was not the world of Lady Chatterley.  This was the real world where romance was left on a back burner, where it took  a backseat to material concerns and the warped desires of the flesh.  I also saw in a flash that this was a world where the dreams of the heart are sacrifacied upon the merciless alters of reality.

I also assumed, as she smiled demurely in my direction, that she eventually hooked a King Fish, and that the sea of chance was now under her Queenly control.